Hydrostatic transaxles have become prevalent in the ZTR mower industry. Hydrostatic transaxles combine the hydraulic pump and one or more hydraulic wheel motors into a single unit, thereby simplifying and reducing the overall cost of the drive system of ZTR mowers and other hydraulically-driven devices. The hydraulic pump of the hydraulic transaxle is mechanically driven by an internal combustion engine (or similar drive unit) via a belt-and-pulley system, and the hydraulic pump in turn drives the hydraulic motor for each drive wheel. However, due to the integration of the hydraulic pump and hydraulic wheel motors into a single unit, suspension of the drive wheels on a ZTR mower utilizing hydrostatic transaxles presents several challenges. One of the foremost challenges is the variation in belt angle between the drive pulley coupled to the power take-off shaft of the internal combustion engine, and the driven pulley(s) of the hydraulic pump on the hydrostatic transaxle. If the belt angle between the drive and driven pulley(s) is too great, the belt may run off of one or more of the pulleys and render the drive system inoperable, or may wear at an unacceptable rate. Due to these challenges, suspension of drive wheels driven by hydrostatic transaxles has been generally avoided.